


Edge of Space

by VarjoRuusu



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Crack, Cute, F/M, Fluff, No Plot/Plotless, Random - Freeform, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy, Well it was my own prompt but still, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21659377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VarjoRuusu/pseuds/VarjoRuusu
Summary: The crew begins to form random telepathic bonds that last for 24 hours. There is no explanation as to cause, who is affected, or why. Chaos, predictably, ensues.
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Edge of Space

**Author's Note:**

  * For [janewaystolemyheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janewaystolemyheart/gifts).



> Ok so I wrote a pompt the other day and then, well, I ended up writing it. I'm not sure how. I've never finished a Voyager fic before and this is so much crack. I tried to make it cute, I did not try to make it make sense. It...is a mess. But hey, it's funny?
> 
> Italics are mind speeeech because. So. Enjoy.
> 
> Not beta read, I've read it over, but it probably has mistakes. I'm tired, you'll have to excuse the calibre of my writing today. :)

“You can hear the ensign's thoughts...in your head?” the Doctor asked, looking between his two patients, each sitting on a bio bed and looking perplexed and horribly embarrassed. They refused to acknowledge one another as the lieutenant nodded.

“Well, I'll do a full work up on you both,” the Doctor said, having no other course of action at this point.

Neither scan revealed anything, just as the previous five sets of scans had revealed on three other ensigns, two science officers, four engineers, and Seven of Nine.

“And none of them were doing anything out of the ordinary?” Captain Janeway asked an hour later when the Doctor presented her with his findings, or lack thereof, on a data pad in her ready room.

“Nothing. Six of them were asleep, they were suddenly woken by obtrusive thoughts that didn't belong to them, three of the links were established durning lunchtime in the mess, Seven noticed something off when she was regenerating and, well, two of the ensigns refused to provide details. I don't understand it, I've searched every database multiple times over, there is no reference in any material we have on this ship that explains this type of telepathic connection. I even asked Mr. Tuvok if he had any insight.”

“Nothing?” Kathryn sighed, rubbing her forehead. She hadn't had enough coffee for this. She wasn't sure enough coffee existed for this.

_'Hello?'_

Kathryn jumped, looking around.

“Captain?”

“Did you say something?” she asked, her eyes snapping to the hologram in front of her.

“No,” the Doctor said, concerned. He pulled out his tricorder and began scanning immediately.

_'Is anyone there?'_

“Someone's asking me if anyone is there, what do I do?” she asked, feeling like something was itching at her head.

“You only hear a voice? Not several unguarded thoughts?”

She shook her head.

“Respond naturally, as if you were speaking,” the EMH suggested.

_'Who is this?'_

There was a long silence, then: _'Captain?'_

The door chimed a moment later and Katheryn took a breath.

“Come,” she said, dreading who was going to be on the other side. A sheepish looking Tom Paris entered the room and the door shut behind him.

“Morning, Captain,” he said before he turned to the Doc.

“Mr. Paris. The captain says she hasn't heard any errant thoughts from you,” the Doctor said, turning his diagnostics on Tom.

“Er, well, this is the third time this has happened. I've gotten pretty good at tamping my thoughts down, and Captain, you're nearly silent. It's much different from anyone else.”

“I don't need this today,” Janeway grunted, going to the replicator for more coffee. “I don't need this ever.”

“I heard that,” Tom said, catching the tail end of her long run of swearwords in her head. Kathryn just sighed.

“Well, on the bright side, it appears to wear off after twenty-four hours,” the Doctor said, receiving twin glares for his troubles.

–

So it went on for nearly a week, crew members developing telepathic links at random, never knowing if they were going to get a connection or not, who it would be to, or when. The only constant was that, once established, the link only lasted for a day. Only the doctor was immune and eventually he banned the crew from sickbay unless they had any _other_ unusual symptoms, such as fever or headaches. For counselling he set them to Tuvok, who helped those with wilder thoughts find some restraint, or to Neelix, who just let people rant about it. Eventually the crew seemed to settle into a cautious acceptance and started getting to know each other better in light of being inside each others heads randomly and constantly.

–

“Get out,” Kathryn groaned when the door of her ready room opened with a soft hiss. The lights were dimmed and she had muted her door chime and comm badge for anything short of a red alert.

“I was worried,” came Chakotay's deep voice and Kathryn sighed, a smiled tugging at her mouth gently.

“I'm exhausted, Chakotay, I've had two Ensigns and Tom Paris in my head in the last week, the coffee stopped keeping me away three days ago and I've had a headache for I can't even remember how long.”

“The Doc still doesn't know what's going on?” Chakotay asked as he crossed the room and took a seat next to the couch where Kathryn was sprawled, her arm over her eyes.

“He thinks it might be some kind of virus, or some kind of alien, or some kind of. Something,” Kathryn sighed.

“Well, maybe-”

_'-this is all pointless and we're going to be stuck like this all the way back to the alpha quadrant and with my luck the next person I'm going to have rooting around in my head will be-'_

“Kathryn,” Chakotay said suddenly, reaching out and putting a hand on her arm.

“What?” she mumbled, uncovering one eye and glaring at him.

_'I think you're in my head,'_ he thought with a soft smile and her eyes widened and her mind immediately closed down like a bulkhead door slamming closed.

“I can't hear you,” she said after a minute, sitting up slowly.

“I meditate a great deal,” he said kindly. “I tend not to let my thoughts wander if I can't help it. And after this week, I've had some practice of my own, keeping my thoughts to myself.”

“I'm not sure I can take much more of this,” Kathryn sighed, slumping back against the couch, noticing her headache, at least, was receding.

“Look at it this way, you'll have a very quiet twenty-four hours now,” Chakotay smiled and Kathryn sighed.

“Is this you? Making me feel so calm?” she asked, feeling drowsy. She hadn't been this relaxed in months.

“What can I say, my presence is soothing,” Chakotay joked.

“At the moment, that's very true,” Kathryn smiled.

_'I feel like I'm surrounded by an ocean,'_ she whispered softly, opening her mind just a little.

_'I'll take that as a compliment,'_ Chakotay thought, his tone still lightly teasing. _'You should sleep.'_

_'I thought I was,'_ Kathryn sighed.

–

In the next twelve hours there were no new telepathic links reported and those that had been reported already were starting to fade. Twenty-four, then thirty-six hours with no new links, and yet Kathryn and Chakotay remained linked, Chakotay's steady presence hovering quietly in the back of her mind. She could reach for him with just a thought and he was always open and welcoming, answering any question she might have, soothing any worry, but never letting his own thoughts intrude on her.

_'Isn't this supposed to fade?'_ she asked, half waiting for an answer as she continued to read her replicated book, slowly flipping the page.

_'We should play a prank on the crew,'_ came the answer and Kathryn looked up, raising an eyebrow as she set the book aside.

_'A prank?'_

_'Well, a game really. On earth, before they invented phasers they used to use old fashioned lasers as toy weapons and played a game where you tagged other players for points. We could split into two teams, hold a siege of sorts, and the person with the most points at the end of the day gets three days shore leave.'_

_'Clever. And whats the prank in all this?'_

_'We cheat. We'd be the head of each team and since we can communicate, we can set up all kinds of ambushes, keep them on their toes.'_

_'Sounds mean.'_

_'You mean it sounds fun,'_ Chakotay chuckled and Katheryn shook her head.

_'We couldn't be the only ones in on it,'_ she pointed out and felt his amusement coming back to her.

_'Oh no, you see this is the thing. If you and I are each the head of our team, and we pick Tom and Harry as second in command, they will both suggest cheating.'_

_'And we don't have to.'_

_'Exactly. But while they use us to cheat, we sabotage.'_

_'You just want to play war games,'_ Kathryn accused with a smirk and she felt Chakotay shrug.

_'We've been in empty space for months. We've used every holoprogram to death. If I'm bored, you can be the crew is going out of their minds.'_

_'Well its your idea, set it up,'_ she sent, admitting she was intrigued too. It had been too long since they did something fun as a whole crew, and after what they'd been through war games might not be the best idea, but participation wasn't going to be mandatory and it would keep them on their toes. Kathryn found she was actually looking forward to it.

–

“That girl is the devil,” Kathryn frowned, peeking around the corner.

The idea of a laser tag war game had been taken with great enthusiasm and they had set up two sides, as planned. Within an hour they were both facing a rebel faction led by Naomi Wildman and her second in command, Seven of Nine, and they were all being utterly destroyed.

“She's captain material for sure,” Chakotay chuckled next to her, his breath warm on the side of her face as he looked around her. Kathryn snorted.

“She's dictator material more like,” she mumbled, looking at the readout of the points. Naomi was currently ahead by nearly 200 points, and several crew members has dropped out to set up 'triage' for the 'wounded', also known as those who were laughing too hard to keep going. The mess had been turned into a 'hospital' with food, drink, and sugar all in ready access while people watched the scoreboard.

Kathryn and Chakotay, despite starting on opposite sides, had quickly had to band together against Naomi and her rebels, then they'd been turned on by their own lieutenants when they'd realized their Captain and First Officer were decidedly cheating. They'd run for it and ended up hiding in engineering for the better part of an hour.

“Captain, we should keep moving,” Chakotay whispered when he saw the coast was clear and Kathryn groaned.

“For the last time, this is fun, not war, will you stop calling me Captain?” she grumbled. Chakotay just grinned.

“Does this mean you'll finally stop bothering me about it now?” he asked, smirking. Kathryn rounded on him in the narrow hallway, poking a finger into his chest.

“No, it means if you do it one more time I'm going to kiss you until you learn how to use my name!” she nearly shouted, followed by a long beat of silence, in the corridor and in their minds.

_'Oh,'_ her thoughts whispered.

“You know, that's not very good motivation for me to use your name,” Chakotay said a moment later and suddenly she was indignant, embarrassment forgotten. It wasn't like they hadn't been dancing around this for years anyway, embarrassment was a thing of the past at this point.

“Oh?” she said, aloud this time as she drew herself up. “And why-”

“Because,” he said, stepping forward and catching her around the waist with one arm. “If you kissed me I'd never want you to stop.”

“Oh,” she managed, her hand automatically bracing against his chest as she swayed closer.

_'Rules.'_

_'Delta Quadrant. We make our own rules.'_

_'Starfleet-'_

_'Is decades of travel away.'_

_'Mark.'_

Chakotay raised an eyebrow.

_'Holographic Irish bartender,'_ he countered and Kathryn frowned before sighing and conceding that he won that point fair and square.

_'Well, I supposed you had better kiss me then,'_ she whispered.

“Is that an invitation?”

“Do you want it in writing?”

Grinning, Chakotay swooped forward and kissed her deeply, pulling her close as her hands slid up to cup the back of his head, fingers brushing the short hairs on his neck and sending a shiver down his spine. She felt absolutely divine in his arms, like a goddess come to life before his eyes. He didn't think he'd ever be able to stop kissing her, not while he drew breath.

A clattering out in the main all interrupted them far too soon and Kathryn drew back, searching his face even as she smiled.

_'Later?'_ she asked softly and he smiled, pressing a kiss to her forehead just as B'Elanna barrelled around the corner, pausing when she saw them, her eyes widened, then she glanced over her shoulder.

“Look, it's about time, but this isn't the best time. They're on their way down here and they've got some kind of gun that shoots these little balls filled with artificial paint and it makes an absolute mess,” B'Elanna hissed and Kathryn noticed the large splotch of blue on her shoulder.

“Right, where do we get some of these weapons,” Chakotay asked, drawing himself up, the spark of a fight in his eyes.

“Steal them,” B'Elanna said, as if it was obvious, before she took off running in the other direction.

–

The paint, it turned out, was holographic, so it cleaned up easily, but it certainly looked a mess as Kathryn trailed into the mess hall, admitting defeat as she collapsed at the first open table. She was absolutely covered from head to toe in paint and her score sat somewhere in the bottom fifteen. Chakotay was still out there, hunting down the little girl, and it looked like he might come a respectable second or third at this point.

“You tried to cheat,” Neelix muttered as he set a cup of coffee down in front of her and Kathryn laughed, finding she'd had more fun the last few days than she had in years. Apparently word had gotten around already.

“Tried,” she said, raising her coffee in salute.

An hour later Chakotay conceded victory to General Wildman and her faction and they all trudged into the mess where an ice cream sundae the size of Naomi's head was waiting for the victor. With a smile Chakotay left her to it while he came and sat by Kathryn, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

_'They'll see,'_ she hissed in her mind and Chakotay shrugged.

_'You think B'Elanna is going to be quiet about what she saw?'_

_'She might.'_

Kathryn looked around for B'Elanna and promptly gave up on that idea and sighed, going with it as she leaned against Chakotay.

_'Besides. Bets have to be settled.'_

_'I don't want to know.'_

_'You don't want to know how much money I holodeck time I just won?'_ he asked with an impish smirk, flooding her mind with a dozen different holodeck scenarios, most of them ending with the two of them in bed, uniforms nowhere to be seen.

_'Now you're the one who's cheating,'_ she mumbled, turning slightly pink at some of the images.

_'I'm not denying that,'_ Chakotay grinned and Kathryn sighed happily.

–

Outside the ship, floating in the aether, non corporeal, a certain Q grinned to himself and congratulated himself on successfully meddling with his second favourite humans once again. Turning away he shot off to the other side of the galaxy to bother his favourite human, conveniently forgetting to sever the last remaining mind link. Kathryn and Chakotay never did figure out why they were the only ones who remained connected after the strange incident, since they weren't the only two to enter into a romantic relationship as a result, but then again, they weren't really bothered to find out either.


End file.
